When Worlds Collide
by bellesey
Summary: A disgraced Greek goddess finds her way into the realm of monsters and forges a surprising alliance with an oversized coconut crab. Rated T for now, potential M content later.
1. Chapter 1

Chased out of Olympus, she had wandered the Earth with a slow and somber tread for half an eternity. Neglect had dyed her pure-white toga a dingy beige. Her once glistening aegis had grown dull with dust from being dragged defeatedly behind her. The spear was the only thing, including her own body, that she still held with any remnant of pride. Immortal she remained, so she had no need for the protection of a shield. But disgraced she was, and her shame had turned to anger and her anger to bloodlust.

Weapon always at the ready, the goddess Athena had just a fortnight prior found herself in a new island kingdom, one that was strange to her but that vaguely reminded her of the mortal city she had once ruled. It seemed as though ages had passed since her last kill, and she was hungry for battle. "Lalotai," the mortals had whispered as she passed unseen among them. "Realm of monsters." She could think of no better battleground.

Athena stood at the base of the stone pillar, which loomed ominously overhead. Staring straight into the dark grey of the surrounding clouds, no darker than the grey of her own eyes, she smirked with eager anticipation before making easy work of the climb. She was at her best and boldest just before battle.

Once she had reached the summit, she set aside her aegis and spear to perform the chant and dance she had seen the islands' demigod perform only a few days ago. Athena had learned little of the gods and their powers in this corner of the world, and she'd thought it wisest to observe from a distance. Having completed the maneuver with a leap followed by a forceful landing that caused the ground to shake, she quickly gathered her effects and, with one bracing breath, without so much as a downward glance, stepped into the open pit with the self-assurance only a goddess could summon.

No sooner had she jumped than she became enveloped in water. Her eyes widened in brief surprise, and she gripped her weapons tighter. She felt her helmet slipping off and upward into the stream and quickly tucked the aegis under her spear-bearing arm, so she could save her armor. She had only just managed to gather it to her chest when she felt dry air on her skin once more before landing sure-footedly on the ground.

She took a moment to marvel at the bizarre but beautiful flora around her, helmet still clutched tight against her body. Just when Athena thought she had full knowledge of Gaia's creations, the mother-goddess had still more surprises for her. She breathed in this strange new world before placing the helmet atop her brown curls, now sopping wet, as was her toga. Dropping her shield and spear, she began wringing out the cloth, and as she did so, she noticed that the fall had washed it white again. She turned her gaze toward her weapons and saw that they, too, were gleaming as brightly as the day they had been forged. Athena couldn't help but beam just as brightly at them. Many a day had passed since she had last seen her belongings in such glory. With reverence she had not shown them for far too long, she gathered the aegis and spear to her and stood tall.  
"Perfect," she said, looking the length of them with admiration before turning her eyes ahead once more. Her brow furrowed in determination, and a sly smile crept onto her lips. "And now the flood."

She strode forward, eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Soon came the soft thunder of wings, and she ducked just as an eight-eyed bat passed overhead. A grin spread across her face as she looked up to assess the danger. "I've slain Gorgons thrice your size," she said as she sauntered forward, but her advance was stilled by a storm of wings. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw a flock of bats headed straight for her, and for a moment she allowed fear to grip her. Her confidence faltered, and she flung herself beneath the overhang of the nearest reef. Breathing rapidly, her shield resting in the shade beside her, she closed her eyes and, both hands holding steady to her spear, steeled herself to peer beyond this shelter.

She grabbed the aegis and pulled herself up to meet a swooping bat. Raising her arm, she silently prayed to her estranged sister to make her aim true, and she felled the bat with a single blow to the head. It plummeted from the air with a shrill squeal, a twisting mass of leathery black, and hit the ground with a heavy thud. Aegis in hand, Athena raised her shield arm above her and darted from the reef to the low and sheltering fronds of a neighboring plant. On her way, she withdrew the spear from the bat's carcass and shook it clean.

Lalotai quaked with the screaming and winged fury of the bats as they dove at the goddess. She had just begun to gauge the timing of her next attack when she felt a searing pain brush over her shoulder. Before she had time to react, her shield arm was encircled by one of the fronds hanging above her, and it wrapped her in flame. Just as the other leaves started to reach for her, Athena gritted her teeth against the pain, steadied her spear, and sheared off the one that held her, turning it to black ash. The remaining fronds drew ever closer and swiftly. She could feel their heat, but she had positioned herself in such a way that all it took was one graceful twirl to disarm the entire plant. Her haven now in ashes, she drew herself up to meet another bat that had grown too daring in its dive. When it had flown low enough, she pierced it through the abdomen, but - disabled as it was - it continued its now weakened flight.

Athena scowled at her inaccuracy, but this disappointment did nothing to slow her feet or dampen her courage. Her pace fearlessly measured, she mounted the closest rock and waited for the wounded bat to fly near her. She knew that the rest of the flock would keep their distance, having seen her harm more than one of their own. Their diving, at this point, served only as an attempt at intimidation, and for this reason she held the aegis idly by her side. The wind of the creatures' wings sent the delicate cloth of her toga billowing around her. Beneath the red plume of her helmet, a few loose curls whipped about her head. Her eyes were set, and for the first time in a very long time, her arms felt strong.

When the bat had made the fatal error, she lunged from the precipice and, using the spear still jutting from the creature's side, pulled the winged beast from the air and slammed it into the earth. This show of force was enough to send the other bats flying away with only the slightest hesitance. In the absence of their incessant shrieking, Lalotai almost seemed as though a monastery. Almost. The creature beneath Athena's feet was heaving and rasping through its last gulps of air. Ever desirous of a quick kill, Athena pulled her spear from the bat and delved the blade into its heart. It was only after delivering this mercy that she felt the full burn of her own wound.

Looking down, she saw that her left arm, normally an unblemished alabaster, had been striped with red bright enough to rival that of her plume. She winced at the sight as much as the blistering flesh but immediately gathered the resolve to wait. With time, she knew, her skin would be pristine and painless again. After wiping the blood from her now retired weapon, as well as the sweat from her brow, Athena stood tall and proud in the quiet of Lalotai.

"That's enough," she murmured. "For now."  
Little did she know that two large and luminous blue eyes had been watching her with equal parts awe and intent.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days might as well be the blink of an eye when you're over one-thousand years old, but those few days can easily feel like an eternity when spent on your back, without the use of your legs, without food, and with only your own voice and the profoundly unhelpful presence of other monsters to keep you company.

It wasn't the loneliness that Tamatoa minded. No - "lonely" was a concept he was well-acquainted with and had even come to like. It was the uselessness of his body that was driving him even madder than he already was. He couldn't walk, and being wrong side-up meant that nothing and no one could be dazzled by the shimmering brilliance of his shell.

Prior to his besting by the demigod Maui and that irksome little human named Moana, he already spent much of his time in idleness, caring only to eat and to admire his jewels, venturing outside of his cave only when food was scarce, and it rarely was. In his current predicament, however, Tamatoa was forced to face hunger and shame and discomfort, belly-up, with the least graceful posture possible.

But today another human had come - a foolish and unusually pale warrior looking to prove herself against the dark and dangerous residents of Lalotai. When he saw her running from the eight-eyed bats, Tamatoa knew she'd be dead shortly and was glad to soon be rid of yet another intruder, but much like Moana, she had surprised him. Indeed, she was so strong and skillful in battle that he suspected she wasn't human at all. But he'd be lying if he said her bravery and martial talent were what he'd first noticed about her. She carried no gold-encrusted shell, so she was undeniably plain in comparison to him, of course. But here she was, wearing a gold helmet, carrying a golden shield and a golden spear. Even the chain holding up her bright mantle was made of gold. She was also undeniably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

For one fleeting moment, Tamatoa lusted after her. Then he desired only to have her adornments for himself. Then he remembered his situation, and his face settled into a deep frown. He was in no position to make demands of her, let alone attack her for his own gain. To add insult to injury, it also dawned on him that he had been sitting in plain view this entire time, and she hadn't yet noticed him. The corners of his mouth dropped further. But no, he needed her help, and he knew from watching her that he'd have to play nice to get it. Besides, he was curious about her origins, as well as her status, how she came to be so laden with treasure. He could lure her in long enough to get what he needed. Maybe even long enough to get what he wanted. Time to turn that frown upside down.

"Braaaavooooo!" Tamatoa bellowed into the cavernous recesses of Lalotai, his deep voice echoing throughout. "It's about time someone taught those mewling menaces to pipe down."


	3. Chapter 3

The woman whipped her head toward Tamatoa, and she moved as quick as lightning. Before he could so much as bat an eyelash, she was standing on him, pointing her blade at his throat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said and gingerly snapped her up from behind. "Is that a spear, or are you just happy to see me?"

Athena struggled against his claw but to no avail. "Put me down, crab!" she demanded, a deep line in her brow, her teeth bared in fiery anger. "I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, goddess of war and wisdom. I -"

"Oh-ho-ho." Tamatoa smiled, his eyes venturing closer to her. "So you _are_ an immortal."

"Of course-" Tamatoa gently touched her lips with his other claw to silence her. As he did so, his gaze was drawn to the burns on her left arm. A flicker of a smirk danced over his face. He might be able to use this to his advantage later.  
"You're no goddess of _these_ islands," he insisted. "Where did you come from?"

In the driest tone she could summon, Athena answered, "I might be more inclined to speak with you, _crab_ , if you put me down."

With narrowed eyes, he looked over the length of her with suspicion. "Alright then," he grudgingly agreed. "But I'm taking your toy."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than her spear was in his claw.

"Hey!" she shouted. Athena tried to swipe upward to recover her weapon but found herself in free-fall, having been released. She landed on Tamatoa's plates, hands already firmly planted on her hips.

"Well?" He pursed his lips, eyeing her impatiently. "Continue."

Even as she glared at him with scorching intensity, her tone remained level. "I come from Mount Olympus, home of the gods of the Greeks." She folded her arms and lifted her chin with pride.

"What is a Greek goddess doing down here in the realm of the monsters?"

Lips sealed and arms still crossed, Athena threw a hip to one side and tapped her foot, eyeing her spear.  
Tamatoa followed her gaze and immediately rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, babe. You'll get it back. I just need to know you're not going to point it _in my face_ again while I'm in this vulnerable state." He gestured to his belly.

Athena looked beneath her feet, and it dawned on her that the crab had never been a threat to begin with. He'd somehow found himself upended and had seemingly been stuck that way for some time. She also noticed that he was missing a leg. Amused, she looked back at Tamatoa with an arched brow and a teasing smile. "How _did_ you manage to end up in this state?"

Entirely _unamused_ himself, he blinked dully at the goddess before deciding that the fastest route to solving his situation was to humor her. Just a bit.

"Oh, you know," he said, rolling his eyes again. "Run-of-the-mill run-in with a demigod."

" _Just_ a demigod?"  
Another dull blink.  
"I'm only joking," she laughed, waving at Tamatoa playfully. "Anyone who knows Heracles knows that a demigod can pack a punch." And, judging from the bulk of the man she had spied entering Lalotai, she was certain he could do some damage.

Yet another dull blink. "I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about, Anathema, but I would really, truly appreciate it if you could give me a little push. Just a little push. That's all I need."

"It's _Athena_ ," she interjected. "And how do I know you won't just stab me with my own spear once you're upright?"

"You're immortal," Tamatoa retorted. "What do _you_ care if I stab you with your own spear?"

"Fair point," Athena said. "Except we gods can still feel pain." When Tamatoa still looked skeptical, she continued. "Look, just throw it over there." She tossed her head to the right. "You'll have time to grab me if I make a run for it, and I'll feel better about this whole flipping-you-over thing."

"Fine," said Tamatoa, eyes still narrowed in distrust. He threw the spear aside, glowering at Athena as he did so.

"You know, that spear could help me gain some leverage . . ." She slowly pointed her feet toward the weapon.

"Don't even think about it," Tamatoa said threateningly, his claw already pinning down the hem of her dress.

Athena smiled coyly and shrugged as she slipped off his plates and turned to walk toward his back. "Suit yourself."

She set the aegis aside and positioned herself behind his head, settling into a lunge, her hands curved around the edge of his shell. Only then did she realize that the whole of his back appeared to be covered in gold. And only then, looking over the vast expanse of his body, did she realize the difficulty of the feat ahead.

"Look," she said. "No offense, but your, uh . . . _size_ . . . rivals that of the Gorgons I've seen."

Contrary to Athena's expectations, Tamatoa took this as a compliment. "What can I say?" He grinned. "I'm a big, beautiful crustacean, baby." The crab really was full of himself.

Athena blew a stray curl from her face in exasperation. "I'm strong," she continued, "but I'm going to need your help. On the count of three, I need you to rock forward for me."

"You've got it, babe." He saluted her with his claw.  
"Alright. One . . . two . . . _three_. . ."

Even without Tamatoa being dead weight, it took every ounce of effort Athena could muster to push him onto his legs. She was spent afterwards and, doubled over, hands on her thighs, paused to catch her breath.

"Ahhh, yeaaahhh," Tamatoa crooned, skittering slightly forward and then backward on his newly mobile legs. " _Much_ better."

By the time he turned to face Athena, she had already collected her aegis, as well as her spear. "You're welcome," she said, a smug smirk on her face. She went to balance her spear in the crook of her arm to dust off her hands but winced when the metal pressed against the burn. Taking the blade in hand once more, she noticed that the red stripes had only deepened in hue. Her jaw lowered in disbelief, and a concerned crease formed in her brow. She had never experienced the worsening of a wound. A bolt of panic passed through her as she wondered if her powers weakened the further she traveled from Olympus, but she could not afford to alert the crab to this revelation. So her face became unreadable.

"Let me take a look at that." There was no pause, no asking for permission, simply the pressure of hard shell around Athena's waist and the disappearance of the ground beneath her feet. She instinctively raised her shield as Tamatoa pulled her closer and stretched an inspecting eye toward her arm. "That _is_ a pretty nasty burn . . . Why you humanoids insist on keeping your skeletons on the inside is beyond me," he said with a shake of his head. "But I have just the thing for it." And with that, he began scuttling toward the mouth of a cave.

Athena cleared her throat. "You can put me down now."

Tamatoa side-eyed her. "Nothing against your legs, babe, but you've only got two of them. And they're shorter than mine."

She opened her mouth to reply but was hushed by the sight of the cave as they made their entrance. It was shining, shimmering, splendid, covered in gold and gems.  
"Please," she said, never once looking away from the cave. "Please let me go."

Although mildly chagrined at her constant demands, Tamatoa could hear something innocent and searching in Athena's voice and was curious enough about its source to let her explore this feeling further. He lowered her to the ground and watched the goddess closely as she walked with slow and gentle feet into his home. Every step she took as though she were on holy ground. His antennae spread over her, trying to sniff out her thoughts.

Mouth agape and eyes wide, Athena soaked in the beauty of the crab's lair. She hadn't seen anything so radiant since she had left the marble halls of Mount Olympus. Looking back at Tamatoa with eyes that gleamed with restrained tears, she said softly, "It reminds me of home." She swallowed the memories and forced jest into her voice. Turning round to face Tamatoa, she held out her arms, gesturing to their surroundings. "Camouflage?" she ventured with a smile.

Tamatoa scoffed at this. "Camouflage? I never hide!" he said, folding his claws.

"Whatever you say . . . So, what's this magical salve you have for me?"

Tamatoa walked past her to begin rummaging in a nook of the cave. "What else?" he asked before turning around with a brown, fibrous fruit in claw. "Coconut oil." With the slightest pinch, he cracked it open and let it roll to Athena's feet.

Gathering one half into her hands, she looked at the foreign fruit before turning her gaze upward. "What's a coconut?"

With large and incredulous eyes, Tamatoa stared at her. " _Clearly_ , you're not from around here." He picked up the other half of the fruit and, using the tip of his claw as a pestle, mashed the meat into a fine pulp. He held it out to her. "Eat the one you have," he said. "Use this one to coat the burn."

Athena accepted the coconut and used the spear to lower herself to the ground before setting it and the aegis aside. She dipped her hand into the shell, scooped out a palmful of meat, and smeared it over her arm. "Mmmm." She pursed her lips against the sting. "You know," she said, glancing at Tamatoa as she continued covering her arm with the pulp, "you never told me your name."

"You never asked," he shot back at her, eyeing her spear. If only it weren't so close to her, he could take it for himself.

"It's not every day you meet a gargantuan crab with the power of speech and a shell covered in enough gold to rival the stores of the gods," she said. "I was a little . . . taken aback."

At the sound of flattery, his eyes rested on her again. "Of course, you were." He grinned. "I," he said, drawing himself up to his full height, "am Tamatoa."

"Well, Tamatoa," Athena said, rising to her feet with the aid of her spear, "this is a beautiful lair you have. But I must be on my way."

"But you haven't tried the coconut yet!"

It came too soon, this outburst. She hadn't even begun to face the exit. Any small trust she had built for this crab was replaced with an unshakeable suspicion that he was trying to keep her there for reasons that were less than pure. Athena cast her gaze downward toward the remaining half of the coconut and thought of Persephone. She _was_ in an underworld of sorts, after all, and she had no desire to suffer the same fate as Demeter's daughter. Was she face-to-face with the Hades of these islands? Chin down, she raised her eyes to Tamatoa.

"If I eat this," she said slowly, choosing her words carefully, "will I be free to go?"

Realizing his error, Tamatoa tried to compensate for this slip in composure. "Of course," he said, waving a claw at her. "Leave whenever you like. It's just . . . You'd be missing out if you didn't try the coconut. I mean, I _am_ a coconut crab, so maybe I'm biased."

Athena wasn't entirely sure of his tone and kept an eye on him, but this explanation assuaged her fear enough for her to feel comfortable with collecting the fruit and sinking her teeth into its meat.

"Where I come from," she said, even as she chewed, "food can chain you to a place."

Brushing this cryptic comment aside, Tamatoa said, "Yes . . . Why _are_ you so far from home?"

"Mmm," Athena cooed, licking the juice off her fingers. "It's no ambrosia, but it's not bad." Her banishment was not a topic she wished to discuss, least of all with a crab who reminded her of someone. She couldn't quite place the name . . . Oh, _Narcissus_. That's the one.

The goddess hadn't bothered to answer this same question when he was on his back. Now that he was on his feet, Tamatoa's patience was wearing thin. Clearing his throat with a grumble, he moved closer, hoping that his towering presence would persuade her to respond.

"Oh," she said, bending to set down the coconut and pretending to have only just registered the question. "Why am I here?" She added her own twist to it and shrugged. "I wanted to kill something."

"You made that abundantly clear when you brutalized a couple of bats out there." Tamatoa nodded toward the mouth of the cave, but he wouldn't be so easily distracted. "Why did you leave Greece?"

Athena bit her lip and clutched her spear more tightly, as though this were a battle it could help her win. She knew it couldn't. The grey of her irises had darkened with anger, but Tamatoa sensed that it was not meant for him.

"I didn't leave willingly," she finally admitted. "I was thrown out."

"Oh, this is getting interesting . . ."

Fists clenched, Athena looked away, ignoring this interruption. She hadn't talked to anyone about her loss of honor since she had left Mount Olympus. Even as her cheeks burned with the mere thought of speaking her sins aloud, she knew she needed this. With a deep, bracing breath, she began, "I _was_ one of three virgin goddesses . . ."


	4. Chapter 4

Her emphasis did not escape his notice.

"Couldn't help yourself, could you?" Tamatoa leered, his grinning face drawing closer to her. "Had to have a little taste?"

Athena cast him a fiery glance before taking a deep breath and biting her lip as her gaze fell. Shaking her head, she continued, "It wasn't a rule. Being one of the three, protecting my virtue . . . It was what I was. It was _who_ I was . . . until it wasn't."

Tamatoa's smirk softened, but his interrogation was relentless. "Got bit by the love bug, huh? You had it _baaaad_ , didn't you?" he teased.

"He was a warrior," Athena said, eyes still glued to the ground. "He was strong . . . cunning, brave . . . _curious_ ," she said pointedly, now glaring at Tamatoa. "I'd seen plenty of others like him - Perseus, Odysseus - yet . . . no one was like him."

Tamatoa rolled his eyes. Waving his claw dismissively, he said, "Yeah, yeah. You fell in love, you got busy. Let's fast forward to the banishment."

Athena had had enough of the crab's interruptions. Her chest heaved with the labor of angered breathing, and a storm gathered in her eyes once more. "My father _killed_ him, you know!" she roared, and Tamatoa could have sworn he saw slim sparks of lightning crackling around her. "He killed the man I loved when he found out what we'd done!" She shook beneath the force of her fury, and Tamatoa backed away from her as she shouted. But as quickly as they'd appeared, the thunderclouds receded, and she collapsed onto the cave floor with a clatter of her aegis and spear. "What _I'd_ done," she whispered and began sobbing heavily for the first time since her lover's death. Lacking strength even to bear the weight of her helmet, that, too, she cast aside.  
Tamatoa struggled with himself for what felt to him like hours. He weighed the tact of every response that occurred to him, bouncing between variations of "Hey, babe, it takes two to tango" and "How about this weather?" Finally, he settled on silence. He thought he'd be more used to the sensation, with silence being his usual state due to his largely uninterrupted solitude. But where company was concerned, Tamatoa was all braggadocio and derision. He couldn't remember being any other way. But the goddess had trapped his tongue. Busy as his mind was with thought and memory, he found it impossible to speak any of it into the void she had left. And whereas he would have felt pleasure at the sight of this emotional wreckage, had he extracted it from anyone else, he looked at her and felt nothing.

So he settled himself into a corner of his cave, the sound of Athena's weeping lightly echoing off the walls. Tears were something she seldom shed, he suspected, and despite her being an intruder in his home, he felt as though he shouldn't be there. Alone with his thoughts, they drifted to taking revenge on Maui and finding the Heart of Te Fiti. Tamatoa soon found his eyelids growing heavy, and with the strange lullaby of the goddess' sorrow still swirling around him, he fell into a deep sleep as night came to Lalotai.

When he awoke, the cave was dark and still. There was not a sound to be heard, and if it weren't for his own bioluminescence giving light to his lair, Tamatoa would have thought the goddess had given him the slip. But there she was, sound asleep, lying on the sand with her face buried in her arms. Even in the dark, her effects gleamed, still scattered about her. He rose and, treading carefully, crept closer to her. His eyes rested on the easiest target: the helmet. And with one slow and fluid movement, he pinched the soft, red plume, lifted the armor, and added it to his own. Next was the spear. Scraping his pincers across the sand, he clasped the weapon with a muffled clank and found a place for it, too, among his gems. Last was the shield. He grabbed it by the edges, and it was halfway to his shell when Athena began to stir.

Panicked, Tamatoa lost his grip on the aegis, and it fell to the ground with a thud. Muted as the sound was by the sand, he still found himself paralyzed, lips pursed, breath held, and eyes wide, searching for the shield with his left while keeping his right on Athena. When the goddess merely adjusted her position, brown curls spilling generously over her face, he breathed a sigh of relief. He reached for the aegis once more and this time successfully positioned it on his shell.

A self-satisfied smile spreading broadly across his face, he briefly considered swallowing Athena whole to top things off but decided against it after considering the horrible indigestion she would cause if she awakened in his stomach. Forgetting the idea, he had just begun to creep back to his corner when it occurred to him that perhaps he shouldn't leave her alone unarmed. Sure, she was immortal, and neither he nor she had reason to fear her death. But he knew that if one of those Lalotai lowlifes found their way into his lair, as they were apt to do, it would result in a noisy scuffle, and he couldn't afford to have any unnecessary disturbances to his beauty sleep.

Huffing quietly in annoyance, Tamatoa turned toward her again but found himself pausing before scooping her up. Filled with a hesitant eagerness that he could not discern the source of, he reached out to brush the hair from Athena's face, and he felt the breath catch in his throat, so startled he was by how peaceful she looked. Calm and collected though she often was during her waking hours, there was always this intensity burning just beneath her skin and flickering in her eyes. She was never truly at rest. But here and now, eyes closed, mouth relaxed, she was as cool as the waters that surrounded Lalotai. The contrast was striking.  
After gathering himself, he gathered her and placed her in the ribcage left from a former meal. Before he had time to make it back to his own resting place, he spied one of the masked sloths, chittering as it slinked over to the cage, reaching through the bones toward Athena, who was now better illuminated by the bioluminescent flora he had nestled her in.

"Shoo!" Tamatoa tried to keep his voice somewhere between a whisper and a bellow. "Shoo! Get out of here!" When waving his claw did nothing to ward off the creature, he picked it up and tossed it outside as far as he could, reveling in the sound of its fading chitter. But his enjoyment was short-lived as he heard the goddess stirring yet again.

"Good riddance. He was making a terrible racket," she yawned. "Where are my things?" He turned to see Athena sitting upright, patting the ground around her, only to have her hands coated in algae.  
"Oh, I've uh . . . tucked them away for safekeeping." Tamatoa forced as much innocence into his voice as he could muster and hoped against hope that the goddess was too tired to press him on the matter.

Having turned her gaze from the cave floor to the crab for the first time in the dark, Athena gasped and fell to the ground in fear, clutching at the grains of sand beneath her. Her horror transformed from abject to mild as she ventured, "Tamatoa . . . ?"  
"The one and only," he grinned and spun around, speckling the cave walls with blue light and motion. "You like?"

For a moment her face betrayed her: mouth agape, pupils dilated in unmistakable fascination. "Ugh." She immediately shook herself from it. "Don't flatter yourself." She took in her new surroundings. "Mind explaining what I'm doing in a ribcage? In a rib . . . _cage_?" she corrected herself.  
"I also tucked _you_ away for safekeeping," he said.

Noticing how easy it would be to escape if she wished, she found no reason to doubt him. "Thank you for your consideration," she said with a curt nod and settled herself back onto the ground, closing her eyes in preparation for further rest.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

On the defensive and testy when tired, Athena sat bolt upright. "What do you _think_ I'm doing?" she spat. "I'm sleeping!" And she slammed her body defiantly onto the ground, facing away from Tamatoa.

"Not there, you're not."

"I swear to Zeus, if you lay a single claw on me -"

Tamatoa picked her up. "I just kept one of our resident monsters from doing to you what you did to those bats earlier," he explained as he picked some of the larger leaves that were growing in the cave and placed them on his shell. "So first of all, I'm not making the same mistake twice by letting you sleep in that cage, and second of all," he said, plopping Athena onto a now padded portion of his back, "you owe me one."

Too tired to produce an argument, Athena stayed where she was put and lied down. She closed her eyes and shed one last tear as she did so. Finally free of pests and worries, Tamatoa walked back to his corner and lowered himself down, resting his legs and emitting a low chuckle as he did so.

"What's so funny?" Athena muttered.

"You should've seen your face when you saw mine just now. You looked like a little sand crab with how hard you tried to bury yourself in the ground."

"Funny," she said. "I had a similar thought when I found you lying on your back earlier today."

"Good _night_ , Anathema," he said, eyes narrowed in chagrin.  
"It's A- _then_ -a," she answered in sleepy sing-song.  
Tamatoa had closed his eyes, his mouth set in a grimace, when he heard a tiny murmur above him.  
"Goodnight, Tamatoa."  
They both fell asleep with one corner of their mouths lifted.

 **—**

 **Sorry for the delay, but thanks to all for the favorites and reviews! Greatly appreciate the feedback and am over the moon that it's all been positive so far. Happy reading. (:**


End file.
